Bluray guide - A lot of people might ask what Bluray is doing for their PS3 game content wise. The current PS2/PS3 DVD based games already look incredible and have some pretty big playable game areas. A single layer DVD can hold ~4.7GB and a dual-layer DVD can hold 9GB. Now taking into account what the current games look like imagine how much detail the developers could fit on 25GB, that's how much a SINGLE LAYER of a Bluray disc holds. The Bluray technology has been deemed "future proof" because it supports multiple layers for up to 200GB of storage.
That is incredible, not only for the playable area size you could fit on that disc but the amount of detail and resolution of a game that could fit on it. Even maxing out a single layer of a BR disc would be an increase in every aspect of a game of more than 2.5 times the current levels that DVD allows.

Dailytech - With all the hype over Bluray don't you want a portable Bluray drive that you can connect to all your computers?
Well if that's your dream than you're in luck because a joint venture between Philips & Lite-On has released an external version of their DH-4O1S Bluray/DVD/CDRW drive. The unit itself is not much larger than an optical drive set on its side, which I'm sure is the point of most external drives. The unit is silver and black and has an acrylic stand, it looks quite classy. The unit reads Blu-ray Discs at 4X, DVD (single-layer) at 12X, DVD (dual-layer) at 8X, and regular CDs at 32x. The unit can connect to any computer with a USB 2.0 port.

Sony fears the Asus Eee PC, They're scared of what the low price, low spec portable can do to the bottom end laptop market. As well as they should be scared, the Asus Eee PC is cheap, low powered and extremely versatile. It started off slow with only the geekiest geeks wanting one but now it seems that quite a few less tech savvy people are getting into the hype. Asus is planning on releasing more models later this year with larger screens but keeping the same overall ultra-portable size. Sony fears that if people realize the growing list of things that can be done with cheap ultra-portable laptops in general that it will interfere with the lower models of some of the major laptop/notebook makers. If they realize that their day-to-day tasks can be done on such a machine than they would be less likely to buy the newest greatest laptop with and be reluctant to buy the top of the line model.

c|net - The family name for the Diamondville chips (News Post)has been announced, the 'Atom' series of chips. Two chips will carry this name. One was formerly known as Silverthorne and will be a mobile processor designed for the next generation of low-power mobile internet devices. This processor features a new power state, which allows the processor to essentially shut off in between tasks, to achieve a maximum power savings potential. The Menlow chips will also be rebranded to Centrino Atom, but these chips will feature integrated graphics, integrated wireless radio and a new, thinner and lighter design.

Whats better than a cold winters night by the fire with a bottle of wine and an elegant member of the opposite sex... while teaching those noobs who's boss on your favorite First Person Shooter game? Teaching them whose boss by just using your mouse and your mind. Thats right OCZ is on track to release their highly anticipated Neural Impulse Actuator that uses brain and facial expressions to control certain aspects of the game. It is not meant as a replacement of the mouse, rather an additional peripheral to aid you in your midnight run for glory in your favorite games. The device turns electroencephalograph signals into keystrokes making the Neural Impulse Actuator compatible with almost all software. Another neat feature of this new technology is that it uses its own software to fine tune the device to your physiology and preferences in game play. After tuning the device and some experimental runs you will be able to play your game without the aid of a keyboard and minimal mouse movements. OCZ will be showing off the final version of this product at CeBIT 2008 in Hannover, Germany.

Techreport - The current ASUS Eee PC 700 ultraportable has an incredibly small 7 inch LCD screen, this screen has a max resolution of only 800X480. According to an unreleased ASUS press release during this years CeBIT ASUStek will be revealing their Eee PC 900. The new variant will allegedly have a larger 8.9 inch LCD, 1 Gigabyte of DDR2 memory and it is rumored to have a 12GB SSD (solid state hard drive). The unit will use the same design as the Eee PC 700 going as far as using the same case as the 700 but fitting the 8.9" screen in place of the 7". The price is also going to change, the 7" models will retain the same price but the new 8.9" models will jump to around 499$.
A 8.9" LCD is small for an LCD on a device that people use for word documents, web browsing and media purposes but it is quite a leap up from the old 7" screen. the larger screen offering while keeping the same overall dimensions will entice more people to buy an ASUS Eee PC.

UK data recovery firm Retrodata is set to begin marketing a machine for performing hard drive recovery in house. No photos are available, at least until the device has received its patents, but the company claims it can be operated by a relative novice. The machine is designed to extract the innards from any 3.5 inch hard drive with up to five platters using laser-guided positioning. Details are a little sketchy, but the 165-pound device is expected to cost around $6,950 US and go on sale next month. With data recovery services costing $3,000 and up in many cases, this device could quickly pay for itself after just a few successful recoveries.

Razer, a company known for producing gaming mice of the high-end persuasion have chosen the CeBit trade show in Hannover to launch its first effort at an entry level mouse. Now Razer's idea of entry level probably differs a little to what a regular user might have in mind and as such the Salmosa still gets a 1800dpi Razer Precision 3G infrared sensor, 1000Hz Ultrapolling, On-The-Fly sensitivity adjustment and other features you'd associate with some of Razer's previous offerings. The style of the mouse is certainly in keeping with others in the company's line up, with a sleek and compact design. The Salmosa also happens to be particularly light, which is something that will suit gamers who like to play with a deft touch. Of course, the main motivation for Razer to introduce an entry level model is to appeal to those who may not considered a Razer mouse before. The $39.99 (29.99 euro) is certainly more reasonable (could it be called entry-level?), but I'm not sure about that name. Razer also happen to be running a contest to win a Salmosa over at the read link.

AMD used CeBIT 2008 as an opportunity to formally announce the release of its ATI Catalyst 8.3 set of drivers for its line of Radeon graphics cards. While this release has long been expected and is no surprise, AMD said the drivers will be available for download beginning March 5. What is significant about this release beyond the usual bug fixes and enhancements is support for CrossfireX and ATI Hybrid Graphics. CrossfireX is ATI's new technology allowing the use of three or four GPUs in a single system. That can translate up to 3.2 times the performance over a single graphics processor under certain scenarios. CrossfireX allows the mixing and matching of ATI's 3850, 3870 or 3870 X2 cards in any combination. ATI Hybrid Graphics allows the use of a single discrete videocard in combination with an onboard graphics processor to achieve up to 70% performance boost without having to purchase a second card. In addition ATI Catalyst 8.3 will offer DirectX 10.1 support for the ATI Radeon HD 3000 series, various anti-aliasing enhancements, HydraVision support for Windows Vista and GPU scaling for widescreen monitors.

In further news from CeBit 2008, AMD today announced its 780 series of integrated graphics processors designed for casual gamers and multimedia processing. Expected to be available on motherboards from AMD's partners beginning in the second quarter of this year, the chip is an integral component of AMD's Cartwheel desktop and Puma notebook platforms. This will enable users to attain high-def and 3D graphics capabilities at mainstream prices. When paired with an ATI Radeon videocard, users can also make use of the new ATI Hybrid Graphics technology that pairs the onboard and discrete GPU in a Crossfire-like configuration, resulting in a boost in 3D processing performance. This setup will be supported beginning with ATI Catalyst 8.3 available on March 5. Based on a 55nm manufacturing process, the 780G will offer greater performance while drawing less energy at idle. More information including tech specs and a launch video is available by clicking on the link above.

Flash memory is getting bigger and bigger these days. Patriot annouced a series of Solid State Drives (SSD) yesterday, with capacities ranging all the way up to 256GBs. SSDs offer extremely fast access times and higher reliability when compared to a normal hard drive, as there are no moving parts included in them. The drives are also silent. Patriot already showed a 128GB version on the CeBit (See OCCs coverage). The drives will be available in 2.5" notebook format, as well as the standard 3.5" desktop hard drive size.

We have seen plenty of DDR3 modules out in the wild now, but the new standard hasn't found wide spread adoption yet. This is mainly due to the high price of DDR3 compared to the continuing low prices on DDR2 modules. Mushkin has been showing its latest DDR3 memory at the CeBit trade fair in Hannover, in rated speeds up to DDR3-1800. Known as XP3-14400, at those super fast speeds you will get timings of 8-8-7-20 at 1.9 - 1.95v and they will be available as 1GB modules or in 2GB matched pairs. There is also XP3-12800 which runs at a still respectable DDR3-1600 at timings of 7-7-6-18. As well as single 1GB modules and 2GB kits, XP3-12800 will also be available as 2GB modules and 4GB kits (all running at those same timings). As the year goes on, I expect we will see more DDR3 releases as companies push for the transition from DDR2. Hopefully we will also start to see prices coming down. The Mushkin XP3 modules mentioned all come with the company's FrostByte heatspreaders and will be available in retail channel from the beginning of April.

AMD seems to be using CeBit to attract as much attention as it can (and it probably needs to). With Intel releasing its full line-up of quad-core 45nm processors soon, AMD is showing its own 45nm parts at CeBit running multiple operating systems and running intensive applications. The processors were produced at AMD's Fab 36 in Dresden using a 45nm process developed with IBM. AMD plans to deliver 45nm products later this year, though how much later is yet to be specified. Anything that gives Intel a bit of competition is good for us consumers though, so let's hope for the best.

AMD also released details of its 'Puma' mobile platform, which will make use of 780G chipset reported on earlier. This is AMD's first go at a full mobile platform (think Centino on the Intel side), with Puma platform notebooks specified as having a Turion Ultra (Griffin) CPU, RS780M Chipset and Wi-Fi adapter. The Turion Ultra is only dual-core for the time being, though future quad-core versions can't be ruled out. Several measures are implemented in an attempt to save on power, such as the CPU cores being able to run at independent frequencies, which can shift dynamically. PowerXpress technology should also allow you to switch between integrated and external graphics without a reboot. AMD is expecting Puma based notebooks to start shipping at the end of Q2.

Leading off our roundup today is continuing coverage of AMD's recently announced 780G chipset with an item from Tech Report titled, appropriately enough, AMD's 780G chipset. Also in the lineup is AMD 780G Chipset / AMD Athlon X2 4850e Platform from motherboards.org. Continuing on with more news regarding AMD, we have a chance to look at three pieces about the HD 3870 X2 videocards. AMD just released ATI Catalyst 8.3 that includes official support for their CrossfireX technology and [H]ardocp presents their ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2 CrossFireX Evaluation to see just what kind of gaming experience you can expect from a quad-GPU setup. 3dGameMan has a comparison of the HIS HD 3870 X2 vs. BFG 8800 GTX and specifically looks at each card's performance in the game Crysis. The third article comes from RBMods as they look at the Asus EAH3870X2 Videocard. Next we move on to power supplies. PC Power & Cooling is certainly regarded by most as being at the top of the food chain when it comes to power supplies. [H]ardocp has a critical look at the PC Power & Cooling Turbo-Cool 860 Power Supply to see if this unit can measure up to the standards one expects from a PSU from this company. There are other players in the market though and many provide quality units as well. 3dGameMan checks out the Tagan BZ 1100watt Power Supply to determine if its feature set and performance are worthy of the price. Quad core processors may get a lot of folks excited, but until software and games are able to fully make use of all four cores, dual-core CPUs still hold a lot of interest for some, especially in terms of higher clock speeds and greater potential overclocking ability. Intel's Wolfdale family of 45nm processors are coming out and Neoseeker presents the Intel E8500 Review & Overclocking Analysis (OCC has a recent review HERE). The Honeywell SecuraDrive 1.8-inch 80GB USB Hard Drive from ThinkComputers is worth a look as it combines both high capacity and portability in a compact form. Green is the new black and TweakTown has the latest news from the MSI ECOlution press event from Taipei. Those interested in upgrading to Microsoft's latest OS, especially with SP1 coming out should take a look at Beginners Guides: Installing Windows Vista from PCSTATS.

Vuzix Corporation manufactures and sells a line of personal display devices. Designed to provide user with a immersive gaming experience, these 3D eyeware units provide users the experience of viewing a 62" screen from nine feet away. Vuzix has just announced its latest VR920 software version 2.0 that provides support for some of the most popular games and essentially any model graphics card regardless of make. Previously, support was limited to games supporting Nvidia 3D Stereo and a few of Nvidia's video cards. With this new release, gaming support has been expanded to 40 titles including Microsoft Flight Simulator X, Quake 4, Half-Life 2, Crysis and Call of Duty 4 to name just a few. With additional developers adding native support look for this device to move into the mainstream as a must have for gamers.

iPhone users rejoice! Developers will soon have access to the iPhone SDK, the same tools Apple uses to develop new applications for the iPhone. Apple also introduced the iPhone Simulator, a kind of virtual iPhone that runs on a Mac to aid in developting new applications. The iPhone is also getting a face lift that should aid in its usability in the workplace. New features will include Microsoft Exchange support, "push-based" email, contact and calendar synchronization, additional support for VPN's, etc. These new features and the release of the iPhone SDK will undoubtedly make the iPhone a worthy competitor to the Blackberry in the workplace.

That's right, not to be outdone by the release of Firefox Beta 3 last month Microsoft has let loose Beta 1 of Internet Explorer 8. It will be vary familiar if you currently use IE7, though it adds some new features into the mix as well. 'Activities' aim to give you quick access to web services which you may have to copy and paste data to use normally. By using the activity menu you can for example, easily bring up a map of a location written on a web page, or blog about a portion of an article. 'Webslices' are another new feature, which work in a similar way to web feeds, but display content you may have subscribed to in a small window attached to your favourites bar so you don't have to navigate to the site. The favourites bar, which was called the links bar in IE7 gets a general makeover and other features include automatic crash recovery and an improved phishing filter. Nothing revolutionary then really, but it is good to know competition is keeping IE developers on their toes. You can find dowloads of IE8 Beta 1 for various operating systems, as well as more information by clicking the read link.

The Eee PC has been a big hit, possibly bigger than even ASUS themselves had predicted. Since its launch, dedicated users have been installing versions of Windows XP onto the diminutive device. Well now you will be able to pick up a version of the Eee PC with a copy of XP pre-installed, along with some Windows Live programs such as Messenger, Mail and Photo Gallery as well as MS Works (though not in all regions). One would also assume that ASUS have done a little bit to cut down on the regular XP install so that it runs a little more smoothly on the Eee, though how much they may have tweaked can only be guessed at the moment. You can also expect a bit of a price premium for picking up an Eee-XP, probably something in the region of $30-$60 if previous predictions are anything to go by. Either way, it is good news for those who don't feel up to the task of getting Windows installed on an Eee themselves.

CeBit 2008 is currently underway in Hannover, Germany (you can find OCC coverage HERE) and Patriot Memory is there with its recently announced DDR3 1800MHz memory modules. Designed for low-latency performance in the latest enthusiast class boards, many manufacturers such as ECS, Abit and Gigabyte are featuring this new kit in their latest Intel X4 motherboards on display at the show. Each set of the Viper series 2x1GB sticks feature support for the Intel XMP specification which is a set of SPD settings onboard each module engineered to optimize the overclocking of the memory. Be sure to check out the latest on display at CeBit and OCC's continuing coverage using the link above.

Deep down inside we all want to upgrade our PC's at least a little bit (if not, you should, so start thinking about it). XFX, a leading manufacturer of Nvidia based graphics cards has lowered prices on a few of there mid-range graphics cards today by way of very tempting rebates. That new upgrade isn't so far off now is it? Price reductions for the 8800GT series will include the 8800GT 512MB Standard down to $189.99, the 8800GT 512MB XT down to $199.99 and the 8800GT 512MB XXX down to $209.99. Price reductions for the 9600GT series will include the 9600GT 512MB Standard for $149.99, the 9600GT 512MB XT for $164.99 and the 9600GT 512MB XXX for $179.99. The budget lineup reductions will include the 8800GS series with the 8800GS 384MB Standard down to $119.99 and the 8800GS 384MB XXX down to $139.99. Now if your not thinking about picking up one of these fine cards at either Newegg, Tiger Direct or ZipZoomFly where these prices are being offered, you should be!

It's the weekend, so kick back, grab your morning coffee and join us on our roundup of affiliate reviews from around the web. Nvidia 9600GT cards based on the G94 architecture continue to show up. Today's entry is the factory-overclocked ECS GeForce 9600GT Accelero 512MB at TweakTown. You may have already deduced from the name that this card features a the Arctic Cooling Accelero S2 passive cooler which manages to render the SLI connector unusable due to its massive size. With flash memory prices continuing to fall, putting a multi-gigabyte USB drive in your pocket is no longer out of reach for just about anyone. Legit Reviews checks out the Kingston DataTraveler 400 2GB USB Flash Drive with it's included privacy and data syncing software. 3dGameMan has posted a video review of the Cooler Master Cosmos S Case and this case looks even classier in the video than some of the previous pictures I've seen. Tech ARP takes a tour of Team Fortress 2 and also posted an update to its Mobile CPU Comparison Guide. Also in the gaming realm we get treated to a Advance Wars: Days of Ruin Walkthrough from OCModShop. You may not be familiar with Auras Technologies as a company as they've previously focused their efforts mostly as an OEM supplier to the likes of Dell, IBM, Gateway and Acer to name a few. TweakTown look at one of their first forays into the consumer market, the Auras TwinW (SMF-660) CPU Cooler. This cooler sandwiches a 92mm cooling fan between two sets of aluminum fins, a design we've seen used be other manufacturers such as Scythe.

Shacknews - Jerry Bonner a former employee of ESRB (Entertainment Software Ratings Board)has come out with a harsh review of what goes on behind the scenes. He thinks that the ESRB should reevaluate the current system on which it rates it games. Bonner believes that the current "T for Teen" rating should be split up into T13 and T16. Bonner also believes that the AO (Adults Only) rating should be eliminated and that the current M (Mature) rating should be changed from 17 to 18 plus which would negate the necessity for the AO rating. Bonner goes on to critique the way the games themselves are tested stating that quite often videos of the games were shown and that it was quite uncommon for them to actually play the games they would be rating. He has also said that on multiple occasions ESRB has without knowledge to the raters increased or decreased their ratings on titles and has modified descriptions of some content on titles to skew their views.

Shacknews - Sony has stated that is has talked with Microsoft about the availability of Blu-ray playback on its XBOX 360 system. It is not known whether the Blu-ray support would be a later revision of the XBOX 360 with a built in Blu-ray player or whether it would be an external add-on device such as Microsoft's own HD-DVD player. Steve Ballmer the CEO of Microsoft stated at the Mix08 internet conference that Blu-ray support was in the works. Sony's recent victory over Toshiba in the format wars has brought a lot of focus to Blu-ray (being that is the only high definition format currently in production), Microsoft agreeing to utilize the format on their XBOX 360 console could yield higher profits as it did for Sony when they designed their Playstation 3 console around the Blu-ray format. If this plan is followed through then this will release another sub$600 Blu-ray device into the market which could prove beneficial for consumers as well as Microsoft having increased sales of the XBOX 360.

A flurry of notebooks based on Intel's Atom low-power processor are destined for retail shelves by the end of the second quarter according to the chief of Intel's Asia-Pacific business unit. The newly re-badged Atom is based on Intel's Silverthorne architecture and is designed to be used low-power, low cost devices Intel has chosen to refer to as 'netbooks'. According to Intel, you should these units coming in at around the $250 - $300US range, with some beefier units approaching $350. The new notebooks are going to compete directly against Asus Eee PC and will offer performance on par with the original Intel Pentium M mobile processors, plenty of power to access e-mail and browse the web. Other features will include screens ranging in size from 7" to 10", with some units offering tablet-like capabilities. Others will come equipped with solid state drives. The notebooks based on the Atom processor will ship with either Windows XP or some flavor of Linux.

A few months ago OCC reviewed the OCZ Vendetta CPU Cooler and were impressed with the price/performance ratio. Our reviewer must have had unusual foresight as he commented "It would be nice to see if there would be any performance increase with a 120mm version of the Vendetta." Now we get a chance to find out as today OCZ announced the release of the Vendetta 2 cooler with a larger fan. Designed along the same lines as the original, the Vendetta 2 incorporates 3 solid copper heatpipes in a direct-touch design and stacked aluminum fins for superior heat dissipation. The Vendetta 2 is built slightly larger to accommodate the low-noise 120mm fan. This upgrade allows the new cooler to push more air at lower RPMs that the original while keeping the noise signature almost identical at 20-32dBA. Pricing wasn't disclosed but you can click on the link above to check out the product page.

We're all familiar with the benefits of solid state disk drives in certain applications with lower power requirements, faster speeds and greater shock resistance than regular hard drives being some of those. Up until just recently, capacity has been a real limiting factor in certain applications such as laptops. Today OCZ Technology announced additions to its lineup with two fast SATA II drives in a 2.5" format. Available in either 32GB or 64GB capacities, these drives offer read/write speeds of 120MB/100MB per second. The svelte size offered by the 2.5" format makes them ideal for some of today's ultra-slim notebooks as well as other high-end mobile devices needing rugged storage. Other salient features are RAID support, 1500G shock resistance and 2,000,000 hour MTBF. And dang if that brushed alloy housing doesn't look pretty cool as well.

In the US, Bebo only trails the big two players when it comes to social networking sites (those of course, being Myspace and Facebook). Bebo clocks in at a respectable 40 million members worldwide, which may make the $850m pricetag seem on the small side. I don't know when $850m can ever be said to be small, but when you consider Microsoft paid $240m for 1.6% of Facebook last year and that News Corp. now think Myspace may be worth $15bn then it does sound like it may be a good deal. AOL will be putting down the $850m (£417m) in cash, though presumably not by driving a truck full of bills to Bebo's front door. Now AOL already has a social networking site of sorts in AIM Pages (profiles tied to its instant messaging app), but I guess it wanted a more established slice of the pie.

Yes, apparently as of yesterday AMD started to ship its Tri-Core Phenom processors to PC manufacturers, meaning desktops featuring the chips will start to appear soon from vendors including Dell and HP. AMD said last year when it added the Tri-Core to its line-up that it would be available in the first quarter of 2008 and it looks as though it will live up to that claim. There is no word on when you'll be able to grab one of these chips for yourself in the retail channel however. If you are particularly keen and happen to live in the UK, then PC vendor Mesh Computers has already began to offer systems based on the AMD parts. The Mesh Matrix XXX Plus features the Phenom 8400, with its three cores running at 2.1GHz, while the Matrix XXX Pro (pictured) comes with the 8600 model which runs at 2.3GHz. Triple Core processors exist in a limbo zone between dual-core and quad-core parts. I'm sure someone at AMD would tell you that it would provide a good comprimise between the two.

Almost everyone who games knows the name ATARI (or at least you should), they have made and published great games over the years and now you can download a select group of those titles right into your STEAM account. Atari plans to add more games in the future stating that they plan to add a large list of games throught the genres.

Microsoft was previously thinking about using Bluray on there XBOX 360 console. They have announced that they were in fact NOT talking with Sony about it and that they in fact are NOT planning on using Bluray hardware on their console. It was just a misunderstanding, in fact on its current hardware Microsoft has sold 2 XBOX 360s to every PS3 while the unit is in stock.

I love the Mad Max movies and I have always dreamed of playing a Mad max video game. George Miller (Mad Max trilogy director) and Cory Barlog (God of War II Director) have teamed up to create the video game. The game will be inspired by the movie "Mad Max: Fury Road" which production was canceled on soon after the war in Iraq had started. The game is still in an early design phase but one thing can be certain, there will be melee weapons, projectile weapon and of course vehicles for you to scream around in.

Anyone seen the movie 'Sahara' with Penélope Cruz? Do you remember that waste plant they had built out in the Desert? Yep, that's right, this new solar tower looks just like it! Plans are to build it near Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, by the company Torresol Energy, a joint venture of the Spanish company Sener and the clean energy initiative Masdar. This type of power plant does not use the sun's light to produce electricity, but it uses the sun's heat focussed on the top of the tower. Because of this amount of heat, steam is created, which is supposed to turn a turbine to produce electricity. In the upcoming five years, the tower should produce 320 megwatts of power and a whole 1000 megawatts in ten years.

Corsair, one of the major players in the memory market, today announced they are producing the first high performance upgrade memory modules made specifically for the Mac. The modules are tuned for low latency and are intended as upgrades for the new Macbook and Macbook Pro laptops. Corsair are claiming as much as a 28% overall system performance improvement in benchmarks with such apps as Photoshop, VMWare and Bootcamp (versus standard Mac upgrade memory). Now as we know, since Macs have used Intel chips they have much in common with PC equivalents, so it is hard to say if Corsair's memory is any different to high performance memory aimed at Windows based laptops. It is certainly the first to be marketed towards Mac users, at least that we have seen. The Corsair memory comes in 4GB kits with timings of 4-4-4-12 @ 667MHz and is available immediately for an MSRP of $159.99.

CoolIT systems produce water cooling systems with a bit of a twist, with that twist being that the water is chilled using the company's MTEC Technology. We reviewed the CoolIT Eliminator early last year and were impressed with the performance. CoolIT has moved on since then and has broadened its product line-up considerably. The latest creation is the MTEC Coldplate for NVIDIA 8800 series graphics cards, which should boost cooling performance when compared with regular water cooling blocks. That should be handy for those looking to push their cards that little bit further, maybe in the aim of benchmark records? The NVIDIA MTEC Coldplate is available now from CoollIT for $109.99

Many people have read or at least heard of TechARP's Desktop CPU, Mobile CPU, Desktop Graphics Card and Mobile Graphics Card comparion guides. There are of course others as well, but all of these guides and the comprehensive tables have proven to be a great resource when researching new or old hardware. The newest installment in the series is the Workstation Graphics Card guide, featuring 103 cards right now.

Asustek's Eec PC has proven quite popular with 5 million units slated to be shipped this year. The Windows XP version of the miniature laptop was announced earlier this month at CeBit and the company is expecting to sell 3 million of them versus 2 million of the Linux version. That is in spite of the fact the Windows version carrying a hefty premium - $400US compared to $260US for the cheapest versions of each flavor.

Now that Toshiba and its HD-DVD format players are no longer a factor in the market, the prices for Blu-ray players are creeping up. According to PriceGrabber.com, average prices jumped from $467 in January to $604 in February when Toshiba announced it was exiting the high-def player market. Some of those price increases are attributable to more expensive players with added features. But, after accounting for that fact, prices are still $20 - $50 higher than they were before Toshiba's exit.

Intel's 45nm notebook processors, recently branded as Centrino 2 (well, thats logical really) will first hit this June and the first Quad-Core in the series will find its way to consumers in September. The QX9300 will weigh in at 2.53GHz with 12MB of cache and will cost just over $1000. I'm willing to bet you won't be seeing these in super slim models, but rather in those fancy (and heavy) brick like models that are popular with gamers on the move. The processors coming along in June will be dual-core parts and range from the P8400 (2.26GHz with 3MB cache), to the T9600 (2.8GHz with 6MB cache). Those should go for $209 and $530 respectively. The Extreme dual-core Centrino should also get a bump to the X9100 (3.06GHz, 6MB cache, $851). As well as the quad-core in September you can expect a range of low power dual-cores akin to those found in the Macbook Air. All you have to do now is wait, as usual. It's worth noting that the information isn't official from Intel yet, but sources seem pretty confident.

After a busy week around the web, things have finally tapered down a bit. The HD 3650 looks to be a good budget video card that offers a lot for those looking to build a HTPC. The cooling reviews cover both air and water options today. You can also check out the latest Intel X48 motherboard from MSI, look at upgrading your laptop storage with a huge 320GB drive and more below.

According to Intel, prices of desktops sporting its Atom processors could sell in the $199 to $250 range. Obviously the Atom chips aren't powerhouses when compared with regular desktop processors, but Intel expects them to be used in fanless systems meant for basic tasks such as Internet surfing or watching plain old DVDs. So you could think of it as a secondary PC for all those mundane day to day tasks (where you are likely spending 90% of your time in a web browser anyway), at least that is the spin Intel are putting on it. It also offers a low cost option for developing countries. Intel calls its Atom desktops "Nettops" and appears to be pushing them to run Linux (a natural choice to keep costs down). Whether they will offer anything to you and me will be seen when they become available later this year.

A student at the University of Virginia has discovered a way to break the encryption scheme on the RFID chips used in about 2 billion smart cards worldwide. The cards, manufactured by NXP Semiconductors, are used for building security and public transportation fare collection. Based on his research, the student claims it would only take a few seconds, a laptop and a scanner to snag the electronic key to a door lock and produce a duplicate card. Apparently the threat is severe enough that one European government that uses the system has taken to adding armed military guards to doors using this system.